Moonlit Snow
by Samayo Kaze
Summary: TIME TRAVEL! I just recently watched this show, and I must say that Shinah is totally adorable. This is a bit of someone from the future coming back to look after the young (or not so young) dragons. Yuki is my Oc in this. Rate may change and advice in how to progress my story is always welcome. It has turned into a bit of an Au, but nothing back and mostly just in the backstory.
1. In the Beginning

Ok, so I've jumped a bit off the deep end with this one. I'm changing some things about the original story within the Akatsuki no Yona universe. Basically, AU but in a good way.

New basic storyline thing: There are more than 5 dragons, the original 4 who were chosen to watch after the king did so and then when they left, they started new clans. Dragon clans. Every Dragon clan is made up of the descendants of the original Warrior of that dragon, their families, and refugees from other clans/nations. These clans are not as isolated as the original villages; they easily interact with the other people. Each clan comes from a single dragon. Each dragon has a mark that they give to those among their clan that bear the dragons gift (Like those red markings underneath Shin-ah's eyes are the blue dragon's mark) There are two basic classifications that get broken down into more detailed classifications within the clans: Marked or unmarked. If a child if marked, it means that they have received some form of the dragon's gifts. Marked children are born that way, with the mark changing as the children mature into their abilities. An example would be a child born with blonde hair that darkens into black as the child ages into their teens when their abilities mature. Some marks are not easily identifiable until the child matures. An unmarked child is simply one that bears no gift personally. Marked children are then broken up further into divisions: there are Warriors, Guardians, Scouts, and then specialized groups based on the different abilities. There is only at most two Warriors from any clan at any time. Warriors are what I am calling what originally are the dragons in cannon, so Zeno for example would be a Warrior. Guardians are adept at survival and protection, they are the main fighters when it comes to the marked people. There are any number of Guardians. Guardians are similar to what Hak did during Canon. Scouts usually run solo missions or in pairs. They scout out any possible problems in the nation and are usually the ambassadors for the clans. Any marked person can be a Scout except for a Warrior for obvious reasons, though most who chose to become scouts do not have strong abilities because Scouting requires a calm temperament and the stronger a mark's abilities the more dragon like they are. Some marked people do not have the right mindset for scouting and chose to pick up normal trades instead just like how some unmarked people chose to pick up Guardian or Scouting positions, which is perfectly fine and accepted within the clans. There are different marks for each clan, some more obvious than others and no two clan marks are similar enough to mistake it for another. When a marked person marries an unmarked person, if they chose to the unmarked person can be given the markings of their mate. People from different clans can marry. Usually marriages are between a marked and unmarked person or between two unmarked people. It is unusual for two marked people to marry, because marked people often view each other as siblings regardless of the clan since the dragons are basically brothers and as such they act as one very big and slightly dysfunctional family. When two marked people do marry, it is normally from the same clan. Two marked people marrying from different clans often have difficulties having children because of the conflicting personalities of the dragons. Any child the who do have is either unmarked, or bares the mark if the strongest parent as a safety percaution but inherent abilities from both dragons. Like if a Warrior and a Scout from differing clans marry, any children will inherent the Warrior's markings. Cross clan children are very powerful and very protective, especially with children. These Children often become wandering Guardians after they mature into their abilities. Now then, this has all been backstory because my actually story does not start until long after. You see these peaceful times of the clans faded and a great war among the countries began. The soldiers went for the Dragon clans first and massacred them, a lot of the unmarked members managed to escape as well as a few of the younger marked children and Scouts but they were later hunted down and many of the clans were completely exterminated. This led to the situation we open into with in canon, with the Dragon villages and only the four Warriors of the remaining clans bearing any marks. The knowledge of the Clans was lost over time, and now only a handful of people even know that the clans once existed at all.

Ok, so I know this can be a bit confusing so if anyone needs anything clarified or sees anything that I forgot to explain in here just PM me and I will be more than willing to help.


	2. His New Begining

"Speaking"

" _Thoughts"_

 _Singing_

There was a small group of children playing with tops near his house. He just wanted to play with them, but when he approached them they were frightened and ran away. Tear tried to force their way down his cheeks and he sniffed as he turned away to leave—before Ao found him outside and yelled at him again—when a high-pitched voice drew him back, "I'll play with you." He jerks back around and standing a few feet away is a girl only a little bit bigger than he is—with big, fluffy, white hair and dark red eye—holding a plain wooden top that looked rough compared to the tops the others had left on the ground. The girl noticed his scrutiny and flushed slightly, bringing a hand up to rub the back of her head, "It's still not quite done, but I'm pretty sure it will still spin," she explained sheepishly. He franticly waved his hands in front of him, "N-no, i-its ok. I-I d-don't mind," he stuttered softly—hoping not to scare off the only person other than Ao that would talk to him. She smiled back at him, closing her eyes as she did so, before picking one of the abandoned tops and and tossing it to him. He fumbled with the top a little bit—juggling it from one hand to the other—before closing his hands around the unfamiliar toy. He looked a bit uncertainly from the top to the girl and back again before clumsily trying to wind the sting around the top to make it spin. The girl giggled softly, the sound reminding him of the Ao's bells, and she shook her head at him, "No silly, you have to wrap it like this," she demonstrated easily on her own unfinished toy. "A-ah," he replied as he struggled to copy the girl's actions with the top. Seeing his problem, the girl closed the distance between them and reached out to grasp his hands in her own. "Here," she said kindly, "You have to make sure the string doesn't overlap itself." The girl moved both their hands, slowly winding the string around the top. _"She's cold,"_ he thought as she finished showing him how to wind the top. "Thanks," he murmured quietly as she let go of his hands and pulled her own top back out of her pocket. "Ah," she looked up in surprise—almost like she had never been thanked before, ". . . no problem . . ." She smiled at him again, but it was an off kind of smile this time. He didn't like this smile. "Come on, lets play," she told him—readying her top to spin it. He startled slightly before nodding and copying her position. "On three, ok," she asked/told him and he nodded again, "Ok: one, two, three!" The two of them pulled and the tops stared spinning but there was a clear difference. The girl pulled her string with well practiced motions indicating that she had clearly done this many times before, even though her top wobbled as it spun unsteadily. He had pulled the string with a jerk, causing an off start even as his borrowed top steadied itself out as the top spun slower than it should. He watched the tops spin for a while, not believing that he had actually got the top to spin. "Opps," she commented as she watched her top wobble more, "I guess it is not really ready to spin right." They stayed silent as the tops slowed further and finally stopped. Suddenly, her head jerked to the side as she straitened and half turned to her right. "Ah, it's getting late. I better get home before someone comes looking for me," she offered him a gentle smile as she collected her top from the ground. "You should probably be getting home too, shouldn't you?" He stiffened, _"Oh no, I forgot about Ao."_ He nodded franticly and turned to leave before hesitating, "C-can I pl-play with you a-again," he asked. She blinked at him a couple of times before smiling bindingly at him, "of course you can, silly, we're friends now." He blushed underneath his mask and shuffled in place a few times before asking his second question, "W-what's your n-name?" She looked at him, her head cocked to one side as she came to some kind of decision, and she smiled softly at him as she replied, "I'm Yuki." He nodded, and ran back to Ao's house to try and not get in trouble for leaving. _"I finally found a friend, I'm so happy. Thank you Yuki."_ The girl watched him as he ran until he was out of sight with a sad smile on her lips and a resigned look in her eyes,

"Oh, Shin-ah. . ."


	3. Behind Youthful Eyes

"Speaking"

" _Thoughts"_

 _Singing_

Humming, he quietly raced back to the clearing where he had met Yuki, holding a rough chunk of wood in his hands. He had been too late in returning home to beat Ao and had been yelled at for leaving, but in the end nothing had happened and he had been allowed to return to meet his new friend so long as no one complained to Ao about it. He happily stopped when he reached the clearing, staying in the tree line just in case those other kids from last time were here again, but the clearing was empty. He settled himself on the ground, content to wait until Yuki would be allowed to come play with him. He remembered that she had been worried about getting home on time and thought that perhaps, just like him, she had been unable to make it home soon enough. He was in no rush and was content to simply enjoy being outside. The animals chirped softly nearby, then scattered as Yuki arrived at the clearing huffing after running to get there. He took a moment to examine her more closely. Her hair was incredible wild and fluffy—it reminded him largely of Ao—but even so her hair was softer than silk and lighter than the moonlight and currently worn in a firm top knot. Those blood red eyes stood out prominently against the paleness of her hair and skin, and on anyone else he thinks they would have been scary but instead Yuki's eyes make her seem all the kinder. " _Her eyes were also very expressive_ ," he noted as he spotted a lingering sadness he did not think she wanted him to see. Yuki's clothing was what had changed the most, she had been wearing an obviously older dress yesterday while today she wore a low hanging tunic and dark colored pants and was carrying a small bag. He stood, drawing her attention, and Yuki smiled her closed eye smile at him as her breathing evened out. He smiled back and as she moved closer, he held out the block of wood for her to take. She did so, and furrowed her brow in confusion for a few seconds before her face lit with understanding, "Oh, you want me to teach you how to make a top," she half asked and half stated. He nodded, Yuki smiled at him again and gestured for him to follow her to sit down at the base of a large shade tree. She flopped down into the dirt and patted the ground beside her absentmindedly as she dug through her bag. "Ah ha! Found it," Yuki cried triumphantly as she pulled a small knife out of her bag. "Ok, then," she turned to him happily, "What kind of top do you want to make?" He tilted his head in confusion, _"There is more than one kind of top?"_ Yuki must have seen his confusion because she started giggling at him. He pouted, feeling slightly hurt that his new friend was laughing at him. "Ah, ah," she shook her head at him—her eyes dancing with mirth, "Just a regular top then, hm?" He nodded, and she shifted so that it was easy for him to see what she was doing. "Ok," she started, "Let me see your wood block to start with," he handed her the wood and she examined it closely—tilting it this way and that in the light. After a few minutes of looking, Yuki hit the block on the trunk of the tree they were leaning against. He jumped, but she seemed please with whatever she had found, "You picked a really good bit of wood to work with, there are no cracks or splits in the wood and it's a hard wood, which is the best for making tops out of," she praised him, and he shook his head in disagreement. She tilted her head in obvious confusion so he elaborated,

"Not me, . . . Ao." Yuki furrowed her brow, red eyes becoming unfocused as she thought, a frown marring her face as he heard her muttering to herself,

"Ao . . . Ao. . . was that the one . . . No, someone else . . .," she brought a fist up to rest against her lips as she tried to remember who Ao was. "Ao. . . Oh, Ao," Yuki seemed to remember something as she hit her open palm with her fist, "Ao is your caretaker, right," she questioned—looking up at him. He nodded, and she beamed at him happily, "So Ao was the one who pick out the wood huh," at his nod she continued, "well he did a very good job, you should thank him." He blinked, then nodded in agreement, a small smile on his face. Yuki smiled at him again, then moved on to showing him how to carve out his new top. The two of them lost rack of how long they had been sitting there, working hard on their own tops after Yuki produced a second carving knife for herself. When he needed help, she was always ready to provide it when he asked, even thought the afternoon passed with neither one of them speaking. They likely would have continued until the sun set if Yuki's stomach had not started rumbling, surprising them both with the sudden loud noise. Blinking, she looked around at the pile of wood shavings she now found them sitting in and when she looked at him both stared laughing. Standing up, Yuki brushed herself off—removing most of the woodchips—before helping him up as well. Eyeing the sky, Yuki turned to him, "We probably need to be getting home," she spoke uncharacteristically softly, "I will not be able to come tomorrow, or the next day either, there are things at home that I must take care of." He was suppressed at her sudden change in speech, having gone from somewhat loud and energetic to quiet and exhausted sounding. Yuki sounded much older than she looked, and her eyes reflected the depth of wisdom age often brings.

"I-I understand," he murmured in response as he offered her carving knife back to her. She shook her, gesturing for him to hold on to it,

"Keep it, and next time we see each other I can help you put the finishing touches to make it spin right," she told him with a shake of her head. He withdrew his hand and slid the knife into his belt. She smiled in farewell as she turned to leave, before stopping and turning back around. ". . . Do . . .," Yuki was unusually hesitant with her question, "Do you have a name?" He blinked in confusion, _"Did she not already know his name?"_ Now more bold—or at least less uncertain—Yuki pushed further, "I mean, I know that Seiryuu has marked you as his own but I never hear you referred to by a name. Do you have one?" His brow furrowed under his mask; that was a good question, did he have a name? Eventually he settled for just shaking his head,

"No . . . I don't." She blinked, then frowned unhappily

"Ah, that's no good. I'm not meant to give names," she thinks hard for a few moments before brightening, "Ah, I know! I can give you a special name only I call you called, is that okay," she questions as if just suddenly realizing that he may not want her to call him anything different.

"I don't mind," he says to easy her worries, and he really didn't mind. She smiles at him happily again,

"Great, I want it to be perfect though, so you might have to wait a little while," she chirped with a smile on her face as she turned and offered him a wave goodbye as she disappeared back into the trees the same way she had come. He stood there for a long time, just watching where she had disappeared—lost in his thoughts—before he too turned and left to return to where Ao was surely waiting for him. He glanced over his shoulder to the spot she had left by once more as he left,

" _Yuki . . ., why are your eyes always so sad?"_


End file.
